The news of https://aprs.fi/ - new features and interesting attractions found in the APRS and AIS worlds.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Embedded map backlinks, API upgrades, speedups and new bat-toys

The embedded map displays a link back to aprs.fi in the low right corner again, as it used to do until July 2010, when aprs.fi switched to Google Maps API v3 and got Street View support. It should be much less annoying than the old ugly box, though. The new link is smaller and slightly transparent (on modern browsers).

I also upgraded to Google Maps API from version 3.4 to version 3.6, which brought in several enhancements and bug fixes. The API has it's own change log. Noticeable changes include fade transitions for map tiles when loading and changing the map type, Street View pegman previews, some speedups, and several bug fixes for iOS and Android.

I have also recently made some database access optimisations making many map displays and some raw packet searches load much faster.

Since 28th of August most, if not all, APRS symbols now have hover-on tooltips. Keep the mouse cursor on top of a station symbol and a description text should magically appear!

And, as you can see from the attached photo, I have some new toys for 70 cm. Built in GPS, text messaging, trunking support, rugged construction, submersible, digital and analog voice, and a few other nice features. And surprisingly inexpensive on ebay, when compared to new amateur HTs with APRS.

MaggieL: It's possible that it becomes a problem. The charges would be a lot larger than what I'm getting from advertisements.

I can reduce the amount of map loads slightly (which the charging is based on) by reducing the amount of map reloads (for example, by not reloading the map every time a callsign or address is searched), but that will make bookmarking map views harder – I'll have to add a new "bookmark this view" button too.